...and in some ways I think that the intentional part of intentional community is resonant with a consumer mindset that I should be able to pick out and purchase my community as if I were getting it off the shelf.
Yeah, that is a pretty good assessment in my opinion. Bit of a tangent but the forced smile is distracting when you see the frustration in the eyes. Its okay not to smile all the time on camera, lol!
Not exactly permaculture but it is in the same realm. This is part of the 2.0 agricultural movement which this project may or may not gain traction, however this one has a lot of potential. Because pictures are worth a thousand words, well at 30 pictures per second and paired with words:
I had my horizons broadened a bit today when initially I was researching some tortilla making techniques but found a real gem of an idea! In an almost never discussed, and even more rarely implemented technique I found a very well written page (link below) about nixtamalization of grains other than corn.
It is nice to have theory put into practice. There is a bit of a mixture of failure and success from the experiments. None the less, phenomenal idea with nutritional potential that has yet to been researched.
Oland wheat is one of our favourite grains at the lab, and it was one of the most successful with the nixtamalisation process. It gives an aroma particularly similar to corn masa dough, with hints of nuts and caramelized roasted grain, a slightly chewy texture, a fine reddish brown colour with hints of yellow, and a surface resistant enough for any type of filling.
100g whole Oland wheat grains
500g water
5g calcium hydroxide (we got ours here)
5g salt
Mix the water with the calcium, add the wheat and cook in a pot for 45 minutes at medium heat. Remove from the stove and leave in the solution for 6 hours. Wash a few times until they are clean of calcium, strain and grind in a molcajete, the Mexican mortar and pestle of volcanic rock (or, if without, then blend in a food processor), until obtaining a smooth dough. Put the masa in a bowl and mix with salt. Weigh out balls of 10g and press between two sheets of parchment paper sprayed with oil. Cook the tortilla in a hot pan for 45 seconds on each side, and a final 45 seconds on the first side, until the tortilla is nice and cooked but not dry or brittle. Reserve in a damp towel.
Fewf.....been a long day! I have just finished testing clinical trials at my home but I need to move to factor in the control element. Will be taking volunteers tomorrow.
Hey guys, I appreciate the link even if it is an advertisement, lol! Bought a copy of the book because resources for Florida are not too common and I like the research shortcut in my establishing a food forest here.
Hi Sharon! I live on the east side of Florida but I wanted to shout out to a fellow neighbor. Just moved here so I am starting new. Waiting on a purchase of some acreage before I establish a food forest. Give me a yell and tell me about yourself!
Disclaimer: I am not a wine expert! The information as I present is reflective of my experiences in marketing, natural sciences, and common sense. Grounded skepticism is an essential skill.
Thought I should share this. It looks like another "buzz push" which is a cleaver advertising technique and I will explain my opinions in the following TLTR (too long to read) post.
It's is a lot like what happened to me when over a year ago I watched a piece through CNN about a service called Hola where at the time it was claimed to be a safe way to circumvent information firewalls (internet censorship). They really sold the idea to me. Long story short, that article was a bit of a clever lie. Yeah, instead the program was a Trojan horse to make my computer become a slave to a botnet or mine Bitcoins for someone else using my computers resources and spare bandwidth which you can read about the plot here. Anyways, it is real geeky stuff and I am not trying to go on a tangent here but I learned my lesson. The media, even from reputable sources can be deceiving. It is a marketing tool essentially selling ideas to people and that is a huge industry of questionable ethics.
Back to the topic, I have noticed a similar pattern of marketing buzz lately regarding Chinese wine. Lately it is from CBS News and other networks. In this case, I suspect other interests are involved than merely a wine connoisseur discussing her love for wine in her updated book. You can watch the video here and draw your own conclusions. Karen MacNeil is author of a popular and reputable book "The Wine Bible" and by all credible accounts she is an expert among her peers. Personally I find her behavior odd in the video because she is really selling the Chinese wine rather than appearing as an unbiased judge of quality. To be fair, it could be the editor's intent to selectively orchestrate the tone of the video and communicate a more positive perspective. Still, I suspect she is acting as a paid consultant and public relations rep. There is a lot of money going into developing this market in China and if they produce a quality product great but I have reservations. Some backstory, China is now the 5th largest producer of wine in the world but they have difficulty penetrating the world market. It is no secret, China has piss poor PR for quality and consumer confidence but for good reason you can read elsewhere. Wine is a connoisseur market that is fiercely competitive. The more lucrative markets demands quality so branding and reputation are paramount to expanding business, least the success of a few wineries may help by association the rest of the Chinese industry.
There are about 80,000 acres of vineyards under cultivation in Ningxia and they plan to expand to 160,000 acres by 2020. Looking at this from an ecological sense, I think the Chinese are making some of the same mistakes that their Californian competitors made. Yes, land in an arid desert is cheap and plentiful but water is not. Least, I have little doubt that China will experience the same issues of high levels of arsenic levels in their wines due to where they sourced their water. The deeper you go in the ground the more likely you get the heavier "old water". If not from the ground, where can one get clean water? Still, from my understanding the dry lands in Ningxia, which is roughly 500 miles west of Beijing, have had an infusion of "fresh" water from government-sponsored water projects. Here is the problem with that, China's has ecological regulations that are near nonexistent unlike in Europe and the USA.
The air quality is so bad that more affluent Chinese are sending their children to abroad to raise them in fresh air to avoid severe health issues. Because of this not even the rain can be considered clean when it is loaded with dioxins or other industrial contaminants. Also roughly 70 percent of the energy is generated by China is from coal. Geographically, the coal industry has a strong presence near many of these vineyards. So yes, I will have my doubts on the quality of the product despite what a taste tester author sells me.
Jennifer Richardson wrote:
The whole concept of authority is to me suspicious. It seems to imply that someone else's will or desire is more valid than mine, and that that somehow gives (or ought to give) them the right to control my behavior.....
But the idea that anyone has or should have "moral authority" to dictate behaviors that are not demonstrably harmful to someone else, I can't really agree with.....
But the idea of some external authority (whether divine or governmental or philosophical or filial or whatever) which dictates morality and which some people can appeal to in order to impose their will on others...that I don't buy.....
but I can't really see how my personal feelings & distaste are really a justification for imposing my moral judgments on others....
Good perspectives and that pretty much is a good pitch of that philosophy. I think it evades an evident truth however that we are all interconnected. My individual actions affect the livelihood of others without choice. Not only is the action of imposing our beliefs controlling, it is also an action to protecting our immediate interests and we ALL do this.
For example, I don't think anyone here can truthfully say they don't impose their beliefs to others when they challenge people to recycle waste, conserve the forests, go vegan, build natural, etc....
A similar discussion I have heard in a previous discussion, I will try to quote from memory here:
anonymous person wrote:
Why should I have a say how people should have sex you asked? Well, when we get rid of all welfare in this country then we can seriously have this discussion because in one way or another I as a tax payer will have to subsidize their mistakes because personal irresponsibility is subsidized here!
The video was entertaining but I do not believe it addressed the questions (there are many in the quote to draw from) sufficiently in the nature they are employed.
What is relativism?
What is dogmatism?
What is a religion?
What is the value of religion?
Is there a better alternative?
What makes you think ethics is an issue in this country specifically?
Aren't ethics just as much of an issue worldwide as they are here?
What is an ethic?
What is morality?
Is there a difference?
Most of these questions from above can be answered with a dictionary, but observing the pattern in its usage it appears to encourage relative thinking. This is a school of thinking partly described and criticized by the quote I gave. Thank you for your comment.
Had a good discussion with somebody I would like to quote here:
Person wrote:We're not religious, we're not specific enough about ethics, we're not going to give any kind of doctrine about what is right from wrong, and that is a big problem in this country! We've raised a couple of generations on principles of moral relativism and now we have people who think that no one has the right to tell them what to do.
But the token here is that I can grow a roof using bamboo and it is cheap. Terracotta tile roofs are awesome. Quid pro quo, however in Florida I would prefer the tile for my house in this hurricane prone area . Now for secondary structures like a chicken coop, because bamboo is so cheap I wouldn't mind investing in the project.
Jay C. White Cloud wrote:
I also understand that a lot more "romantic views" about these materials are projected than tangible views understood and the logistics that actually comes from working with them, designing with them and building sustainable and enduring structures with them.
I definitely agree with that. In all honesty I will be living in a conventional home but for sheds and other outdoor structures I will potentially experiment with this.
Thanks for you input. Here is where I support this material for a roofing material. It is not used primarily for structural or load bearing purposes. If the material lasts 10 years under UV exposure, this would easily justify its usage considering costs of conventional roofing systems. Also in comparison of other natural roof systems, particularly the highly combustible leaf/straw variety it appears to have clear advantages in safety.
I got these images sourced from Kouk Khleang Youth Center. Very intelligent design for tropical climates. Cools naturally through convection and channels rain to a reservoir. Way better for these purposes than the leaf/straw natural roof systems I have seen.
I appreciate your input as always. So far I am very early in my decision where I am developing a trade study. Most definitely will consider your suggestions which I appreciate. Particularly I am very curious about what you said regarding complications after 20 years with structural elements. I have not found any example to draw from where a dome had signs of deterioration but this could be due to the rarity of these homes.
I second the distaste for the lack of natural building materials. Unfortunately in Florida concrete is half-way near a requirement.
Hey guys! Well, its been a while since I posted anything here. My move to Florida is pretty much complete and I am loving my new job here in Melbourne FL. I even linked up with Rogers John who I met through Permies and he took me in a tour of his 2 acre developing food forest inside the heart of the city. He had so many bananas that he gave me an armful because he could not eat them all. Very grateful for his invite and advice and I hope we will keep in touch in a semi regular basis.
On other things, I am on the market for some acreage but where I could get 100 acres in North Carolina I can get only 5 here from the least choicest places. Its reasonably land locked so I have to settle for something more modest in size unless I want to commute from central Florida. With that said about buying land, I have been exploring houses which leads me to the title. I am not dead set on this idea as it is just that; an idea I am exploring! 10 minutes from my temporary apartment is American Ingenuity Domes (aka AI Domes) company. I will let their video speak more about their product.
So with some experience as a mechanical/structural engineer I find the design incredibly alluring. Hurricanes here have a rough effect on architecture which is why building codes are particularly rigid. I have the benefit of county officials here strongly invested in supporting its local businesses to have some leniency with the building code. In addition to that, transporting the kits would be no issue as far as expenses because I live here. The insulation value in the walls are at least R28+ on their medium to larger domes which is pretty good! I have read that they have had their domes withstand Hurricane Andrew and Katrina unscathed. I don't know how reliable their warranty is but they rate their product to withstand 220 mph winds. I have read mostly positive things about their customer service, but there were some semi critical reviews. None however were related to the product quality.
Either way, I am currently arranging the financing which is certainly a challenging task because it will require a construction loan for young pups like myself. Until I get that resolved, I am trying to look into my interior design aspects. Some images that caught my attention but I strongly lean towards open floor plan:
I mean yeah, she is right about burials being very wasteful but are we going to count the gasses produced by cremation? Heard wood burning stoves can produce a tremendous amount of greenhouse gasses too but I wont demonize anyone for having one. Seems like another money grab Kickstarter.
I'm getting 5-10 hectares of land close to Havana, and as a general rule prefer planting a diversity of trees to running after an ox with a plow all day, so I guess this is the right forum for me. Saludos!
The site gets about 60mm of rain during December-April, and up to 180mm during the summer months. The idea is to develop a homestead with guesthouse, some processing facilities, hogs and turkeys as well as 20-30 small dams along a stream for aquiculture (and as a water source in the 'dry' season). The rest would be something between diverse orchard and food forest.
Any ideas or links to your own projects would be much appreciated. I'm especially weary about getting the tree associations right - to go beyond the typical 3-4 species half-shade systems I see here. I'd also like to use the developmental phase to test out all sorts of fruits, spices and other perennials that haven't been brought to Cuba yet - anything that can be grown from seed (importing plants to Cuba is not a fun endeavor). If you've made good experiences with a specific guild, I would be great to hear about that. I'm also looking for planting maps from permaculture-inspired orchards I can learn from.
Un abrazo,
Louis
Hey man, welcome to Permies! I am very happy to hear from somebody in Cuba with internet access.
Fred Tyler wrote:A friend and i are putting in a food forest on a couple of acres south of Sarasota. Any local permies on that side of FL that would like to meet up. We'd like to see your set-up. Most of my experience is in other climes.
Dave Burton wrote:I'm not sure if this is related, and it would probably be better discussed in the Politics or Ethics subforums, but I think there might be a correlation between the way American healthcare is handled and doctors trying to "oversell" services.
That is how "for profit" healthcare works! I broke my collarbone a few months ago (thread here) and had a casual conversation with a doctor on my treatment options. He was telling me that he advised against surgery but we were talking and he said in his previous practice (currently a VA orthopedic which is nonprofit) they would pressure him to recommend more expensive and often unnecessary procedures. In a situation like mine, he said it was often the case that doctors from "for profit" hospitals would push for surgery.
Well, my VA hospital bill was little over 30 bucks. All I needed was some cheap X-rays and a review but in a regular hospital I would have paid thousands of dollars. Sure the VA is federal but I certainly did appreciate the transparency and would trust them over pill and service factories any day! Besides, I had a great recovery.
They did not design the things they try to fix but have a general idea of how it works. They can charge you an arm and a leg for their work. The bad ones will try to sell you more services by saying that more is broken than what actually is the case. If able and in doubt, get a second opinion elsewhere. You may find that after the work has been done, coincidentally other things start breaking down. Just like a mechanic, its hard to find an honest doctor and when you find one stay with them.
Todd Gunter wrote:Paul Wheaton. I am currently building an earthship. I read the article you linked to and its really a jab at Earthships. Much of the problems they refer to come from older designs, and theres many modifications that have been done to change those depending on environment climate, etc.. Many people have problems with Earthships, but lots of these problems come from owner builders who do not stick to the Biotecture standards. Yeah some of the early models had, mistakes or didn't perform the greatest but over time they improved and everything since the development of the double greenhouse, that fully became popular in the global model earthship has performed incredibly well. I'm sorry you gave up on your dreams. I saw my first Earthship in 1989 when I was 16 and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Yep its a lot of work. To the OP, how did you run out of money during the tire wall building, theres almost no money required to do this? We are building a two bed global model with 1200sqft living area, and with 800sqft greenhouse hallway. Currently we are three tire courses from finishing the the main tire work. Its taken 16 months of work to get to this point, and probably will take another 3-4 years to finish the building and move in.We are in no rush, this is our dream home, and we want it to be exactly perfect and exactly to E.B. standards. Except, since we live in a slightly warmer climate than Taos we are building vertical faced windows to help control summer heat. I know earthships are not for everyone, mostly because they are the most labor intensive structure you can build, but they're damn near bomb proof, and when built properly function amazingly well for so little power.
Hi, do you have any links or videos to your project. Pictures are also acceptable and please feel free to start a thread on your work. Thanks!
Paul Henley wrote:I was just laid of today although I have enthusing the works for a bit I have put more applications out than I care to say and I luck so I with my wife and 4 children are looking to embark on this journey listend to almot all of the pod cast relaxation of other materiel and as a help have been a closet prepper for a bit. But I have no idea where to begin aside from getter by out of the city but even there Ian at a loss any advise help critsim or even the ocasional daragoraty remak would be appreciated!
Brother, welcome! I can empathize with you from shared experiences enough to faithfully say I think you are on a good path. I too am a disabled veteran, I did have/had PTSD from years of war in the infantry but I have greatly reduced this condition over the years. My body has taken a beating, but I believe I am on a good path to a decent recovery. Part of what has drawn me to permaculture and sustainability, or rather what had reopened the doors to this interest I partially credit to my experiences in the military.
Deb Rebel wrote:You must download this with Google Chrome then it will work. Else you will beat a head against wall. It zipped through happily with Chrome. I now must go rip Chrome out and reconfigure my system, but. that is what the nasty little bit was that was messing this up.
I was caught off guard when I heard the White House made publicly available its in-house beer recipes here. They were given by a local beer master and are purportedly "well received" in taste testing. I have looked into several White House released recipes in the past and have been impressed. Though I have not yet brewed these beers myself I think there are several people here that may be interested.
dawna robertson wrote:I started getting eggs in november and things were going great until the cold really started to set in after Christmas......since then, nothing!
I don't think your doing anything wrong. It is probably just too cold for the ducks. When it heats up I will guess the eggs will come back.
Kathryn Peulicke, welcome to Permies! Anyways, present your thoughts, ask questions and make your acquaintances here in the forum. You will find farmers, homesteaders, engineers (like myself), intellectuals, free-spirits, pioneers exploring their prospects, dreamers and the rest of the sort. You will meet a lot of talented people here.
That's right, it's no longer $399 a year! The benefit is that you get higher resolution satellite images combined with interactive and geographic data. Google just made its service for free but you still have to register to get the registration key. The registration is buggy but I got a tip from Facebook that if you go back on the webpage and keep resubmitting the registration information then eventually it will go through. After about 6 tries I got through.
Okay, I accepted a position offered to me and it is now official! I will be moving to Melbourne in a matter of weeks and would love to join a group of permaculture enthusiasts local to the area for some networking.
Kevin MacBearach wrote:This would also include: Organic vs non-organic bread.
Bread soaked in milk/yogurt/kefir.
Bread as a small part of vegetable/fruit mix.
Bread that's been fermented.
Fed to meat-birds vs fed to layers.
Interested in everyone's opinions on this.
I doubt its bad at all but I would not make the leap to feed chickens a diet based only on bread. I would gamble that chickens would get more from bread than we do because their digestive systems are more efficient. We fed our chickens a lot of expired bread and donuts for a short period of time back in the day. It wasn't anything permanent, but the chickens loved it!
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